The Queen
by pantheradraconis
Summary: A short story about Glinda from Elphaba's point of view. It's also a contest, see the story for details.


**So this is a bit of a contest. The first person to guess what song (title and artist) this drabble is practically quoting, gets a drawing of Elphaba! (I don't think I could draw G[a]linda) Good luck!**

**The Queen**

by pantheradraconis

Her hair is just too amazing. She gets out of the shower, brushes through the curls and dries it all out. That's it. Everyone is always amazed at how curly it is and how Glinda must spend ages on it, but the truth is, it's completely natural. My hair is straight and boring. It fits me nicely, but to have curls. Natural, bouncy curls. Am I jealous? I'm really not sure. I don't think blond curls would go well with _green_ skin. However, I would love to run my fingers through those curls. The best thing is? She doesn't even like curly hair. She likes my hair. She ran her fingers through it last night. I can still feel the tingling of where her fingertips touched my scalp. It really is amazing what a simple touch can do when it comes from someone... Someone you aren't used to being touched by. She thinks my hair is beautiful. She told me I was beautiful...

Last weekend we were all meeting up at our regular restaurant for lunch. Boq and Fiyero were already seated and attempting to wave us over when Glinda caught sight of a little baby girl. The blond went nuts with all sorts of giggling and baby speech. The mother of the child seemed very gracious of her kin's new found attention and took the opportunity to go to the restroom. I don't know why she trusted Glinda with her child, but I guess when you've got to go, you've got to go. Glinda found this as the best surprise she could have gotten all day: a babysitting job. The giggling increased, but the baby seemed to...coo happily. Babies do coo, don't they? It was sweet to see my roommate in her zone, caring for a young child. I tried not to intercede, and moreover, became quite confident that Glinda knew exactly what she was doing; something you don't see often. She asked me if we could keep the baby. I said it would be stealing, but Glinda disagreed. She said it would be borrowing.

Tonight I came across Glinda in the room alone, crying. I wasn't sure what was going on at first. I walked into the room easily, dumped my books on my bed with my bag. As I was setting away the books in proper place on the desk, I heard a whimper. I looked over towards my roommates bed and noticed the blond lying face down in the pillow, breathing awkwardly and whimpering. I asked her what was wrong, but she didn't stir, so I tapped on her shoulder and she jumped. The tears in her eyes nearly broke my heart. I asked her again what was wrong. She gave me this look, I couldn't quite tell you what it meant, but when she looked at me I felt like I could see her loose herself. Almost like her body would collapse into itself if something wasn't done.

One day, shortly after Dr. Dillamond had been murdered and Glinda changed her name from Galinda, we were sitting by the lake on campus. Glinda was telling me about her family; it felt like we were meeting for the first time. It turns out her family is newly rich, her father had started off working on a farm and her mother came from a family that worked on tic toc machinery. Apparently it was her brother that got them wealthy. Not many people know Glinda has a brother, since he's so much older than her, but apparently he works for the Wizard. I think he's some sort of assistant or mediator of sorts. Glinda gave me his exact title, but I was too caught up in the whole story to remember it. Glinda didn't seem to like being rich, but I guess with wealth comes certain obligations. If I didn't have my skin color, I'm sure I would have been set up to be married to a wealthy man and all the other ridiculous expectations of women. Glinda doesn't seem to be quite so lucky. Her beauty just makes her harder for her.

Sometimes I see Glinda crying. It's eerie how she can be working on some school work and silent tears will be falling down her cheeks. I almost said something once, but when I shifted my body, my roommate closed her book, stood up, and walked to the bathroom. Not 5 minutes later she was primped and talking about how she was going to meet Shenshen and Pfannee. Then she was gone. When we first came to Shiz, it seemed like Glinda was out every night with friends. Now she seems to like to stay in the dorm room. Sometimes she'll bother my studying and talk about politics or religions. I guess she figures if she picks a topic I like, I'll ignore my work at talk with her for a while. She's right.

Glinda sat on her bed and continued to stare at me. Her tears never stopped coming down. I reached out and wiped them away, only wincing a little at the burning sensation. It barely hurt compared to the feeling that seemed to be emerging from deep inside of me: empathy. I took her hand and led her out of the dorm room. We walked through the campus, out the gates and down into town. Nothing was said between the two of us, but the silence was comfortable. Glinda's face didn't change though. Her tears had stopped, but something just wasn't right. We walked past town and along the river. There was a bridge in front of us that was normally busy during the day, but being so late at night no one was around. You could see the town still behind us, the lights glowing calmly. She pulled her hair back and screamed into the night. Her face remained calm, but the words reached all the way down the river. North. She must be trying to tell someone something. Her face was red and looked very cold. I placed my hands on either cheek and pulled her in. She kissed me softly on the lips and said, "I want some coffee." Her timing was unusual and her confidence seemed to fade, but her intuition was simply magical.


End file.
